


Three Facts About (Future) White House Chief of Staff Will Bailey

by scrollgirl



Series: Two Roads Diverged [6]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: Multi, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-01
Updated: 2010-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 22:24:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrollgirl/pseuds/scrollgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will's feelings for Sam have helped shape both their careers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Facts About (Future) White House Chief of Staff Will Bailey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pocky_slash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocky_slash/gifts).



1.

It wasn't love at first sight, exactly, that day in Mattress World, but it _was_ the start of what would become Will's greatest love affair, the driving force that would shape the rest of his life. Most days it doesn't matter that Sam has no clue, because Will only wants what's best for Sam, even more than he wants what's best for America, and what's best for Sam is the presidency. And Elsie.

Will can live with that. Most days.

 

2.

There are plenty of rough days leading up to the primaries, late nights when it all seems utterly pointless. Moments when Will wonders what kind of crack he was smoking to think Bingo Bob as president would be anything short of a disaster. But only four times during the campaign (he keeps count) does Will come a heartbeat away from quitting. This is how he staves off despair:

The first time, by getting blindingly drunk. Donna locks him in his hotel room until the hangover wears off, and by then he's scraped together enough fortitude to go on.

The second time, by conjuring up the frown on his dad's face, the frown with the lines etched deep between the eyebrows and the knowing gaze that Will's only seen twice in his life. Will knows he'll see that frown, even over the phone line, if he gives up so close to the finish line.

The third time, by fantasizing about the look of absolute shock and incredulity on Josh's face when Will beats him to the job.

The fourth time, by calling Sam up in the middle of the night and leaving a fumbling, incoherent message on his voicemail: "I just want to be ready, you know? Not to say that this doesn't count, because it does. It's real. But not real the way it'll be real some day. You know? Um, yeah. I'll, uh, talk to you later, bye."

 

3.

Two days after Sam's re-elected, Elsie brings a Bible into Will's office and makes Will swear that the _instant_ their time in the White House is up, he'll have that conversation with Sam he's been putting off for the past twenty years. The countdown clock in Will's imagination reminds him of the timer attached to a bomb, ticking inexorably toward pain and destruction and bloody severed limbs. But Will's always had an overactive imagination, and really -- bloody severed limbs? Maybe his secretary has a point about not risking the two-day old goat cheese pizza, even if, _especially_ if it's been nuked to the point of radio-active.


End file.
